Still fast and friendly

Wednesday

Jun 27, 2007 at 9:08 AMJun 27, 2007 at 11:33 AM

Page H. Onorato

It doesn't look like much from the road. In fact, you wouldn't even know it was there unless you happened to glance up Southbound Street off West Fifth Avenue to see a small, square, white-painted wood and stone building with a walk-up window and a hand-printed menu posted next to it.The friendly face in the window of Kearney's Drive-In belongs to Pat Justice, pen and pad in hand, ready to take your order and exchange a joke or pleasantry with you.

"She's my mainstay," said Steve Koonts, manager of Kearney's. "She been here six years, and I couldn't get along without her."The little drive-in is about to celebrate its 40th birthday, and Koonts has been working there since 1985 after a 23-year career in the U.S. Army. "It's in your blood," he said, "Most old-timey restaurant people like me don't want to do anything else. It's just in your system."Koonts is probably genetically engineered toward food service, because he is the nephew of the well-known proprietor of the once-famous Green Door, the legendary Kearney Koontz. Young Steve began working at his uncle's diner in 1961 before joining the Army.The Green Door, which opened in the 1940s after World War II, was located on the corner of West Second Avenue and South State Street, right next to the old rusty metal Snack Shop ice cream cone sign. It was the gathering place of many local business people at lunch time as well as factory workers and school children, for it was within walking distance of just about everywhere in town.My mother took advantage of its proximity to our house, one block away on West Third Avenue. "Pagie, here's a quarter. Run up to the Green Door and get me a pack of Camels, please. You can buy yourself a Popsicle with the change."I'd go, of course, although I didn't much like the idea of buying cigarettes. I figured Mr. Kearney would think I was getting them for myself, and it was embarrassing to be a 9-year-old smoker."My mother wants a pack of Camels," I assured him as I made the purchase.In addition to cigarettes, Kearney sold the best hot dogs in town, all the way, served warm and wrapped up into a wax-paper bundle. He closed The Green Door in the early '60s but reopened as Kearney's Drive-In in a building right across from the present location, where John Wayne's Restaurant is now located.As a once-a-month event, on payday, our school teacher mother (who still smoked Camels) treated my sister and me to a cheeseburger, fries and chocolate milkshake from Kearney's, which we ate sitting in the car, a rare experience for us proper little Sink girls.The present Kearney's was built in 1967 by O.T. Nicholson, who owned a grocery store next door and a coal yard across the street. "People would come over and get coal by the paper bag full," recalled Steve Koonts. At that time, big oak trees and a trailer park existed on the lot where the little eatery was erected."When we first opened in December of 1967, you could buy six hot dogs for a dollar," Koonts chuckled. "Prices have changed since then, but great hot dogs still continue at Kearney's."

There have been only two owners since "Uncle Kearney" died in 1999, and the business is now in the hands of Gregg and Barbara Conrad, who bought it in December 2006. "We both came here as kids," Barbara said, "so we feel we're involved in a legacy."Kearney's Drive-In is a one-of-a-kind spot in today's busy world. It's fast food, sort of - you walk up to the window, order and are served in a matter of minutes, but with a difference."Here, you talk to real people, not into a machine," Koonts explained. It's a hands-on business, customer related. The hamburgers are made fresh daily and cooked only when ordered. The homemade chili and slaw have been made the same way for 40 years, and you can still get an old-fashioned cheeseburger on a toasted bun with mayonnaise and pickles."Our employees know many of our customers and what they will probably order ahead of time," Conrad added. "We'll accommodate you; if you like your bologna burned, we'll burn it."Kearney's advertises its daily, weekly and monthly specials in The Dispatch, but much of its business is generated from word-of-mouth advertising."Plus, we have a good customer base. People who came here as kids with their parents now come and bring their own children and grandchildren," Koontz related. "But it's like any restaurant - one day you don't know where they all came from, and the next, you don't know where they all went."But there's always Janie Swink, 93, who comes by at least once a week, driving her own car, to order a hot dog or a cheeseburger. Mrs. Janie worked at the Green Door back in the '50s and '60s, so she knows a good burger when she eats one.Kearney's opens at 7 in the morning every day but Sunday and closes at 7:45 in the evening on weekdays and 7 p.m. Saturday. Burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, soft drinks and fries are on the menu, plus breakfast sandwiches all day long and apple pie for dessert. There's no indoor seating; you get your order hot in a paper bag and take it with you.But it's fun, convenient, priced to please and, as the menu boasts, "A Fast, Friendly, Favorite Since 1967."Happy birthday, Kearney's Drive-In.Page H. Onorato is a retired teacher.